Georgian Minister of Interior: Don't Prosecute for Overdose Help

10 April 2012

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For years, emergency services staff summoned to the site of an overdose in Georgia have called the police to ascertain whether criminal charges should be laid. The practice has discouraged drug users from seeking medical treatment, and recently moved the Georgian Harm Reduction Network to ask the Minister of Interior, Vano Merabishvili, to amend the policy to protect the lives of those overdosing and those who helped resuscitate them.

Following his meeting with the Network, Merabishvili instructed police to refrain from investigating incidents of overdose for the purposes of prosecution.